Ensemble Theatre

To the world, Nora Helmer has it all. A well-respected husband, an immaculate home and three darling children. But underneath the façade of a confident modern woman juggling her life, lies a secret. Or two. When an old ghost comes knocking on the Helmer’s door, their seemingly solid marriage is shaken to the core.

Chantelle Jamieson (KILLING KATIE: CONFESSIONS OF A BOOK CLUB) fiercely steps into the shoes of one of the most iconic female characters in dramatic history. Through a contemporary lens, Joanna Murray-Smith has superbly adapted Ibsen’s classic about throwing open the door to life’s possibilities.

For group bookings of 10+, please call Box office on (02 8918 3460) or email groups@ensemble.com.au

Single tickets are now on sale.

Prices correct at the time of publication and subject to change without notice.

I was thrilled with the invitation from Mark Kilmurry to adapt Ibsen’s 1879 classic A Dolls House. I had one of the best experiences of my life adapting his play Hedda Gabler and also Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes From a Marriage, which featured many of the themes of the two other classics from nearly a century earlier. What I knew from those adaptations is that despite the technological, sexual and social revolutions of the twentieth century, the fundamentals of intimate human relationships remain the same. Women still long for love and for freedom within the milieu of domestic life, men and women still struggle with the compromises of submitting to the will of another human being, we all still wrestle with our expectations of life and then with the resignation of what we have actually achieved. Love, loss, longing are present in Ibsen in ways that are thoroughly modern — in fact, timeless.

A Doll’s House is a play that but for the absence of a mobile phone or three, might have been written yesterday. The joy of staging these classics in new adaptations is not to “update” historical plays, but to reflect how little changes in the human experience from culture to culture and era to era. There is something deeply comforting as well as unsettling knowing that despite the world feeling as if it is constantly changing, certain fundamentals stay the same. And across centuries and hemispheres, more unites us than separates us.

I’m hugely grateful to have had the chance to get inside Ibsen’s head, and also to be be back at this wonderful Sydney theatre.

– Joanna Murray-Smith

Audio Described

• Thu 7 Jul 11am
• Sat 9 Jul 3.30pm

Tactile Tours are available 1 hour prior to Audio Described performances, please contact the Box Office to book.

Q&A Session

• Fri 24 Jun 8pm
• Tue 28 Jun 11am

Free Teen

• Wed 15 Jun 8pm

We will be reviewing our COVID Safe plan for 2022 performances, in accordance with the NSW Government’s health advice. By the time this show opens, we anticipate restrictions will have eased and masks may no longer be compulsory in the theatre.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR SAFETY MEASURES